


Chapter Twenty-Six: Destroy Everything You Touch

by CavalierConvoy



Series: MTMTE Series One: Shoot Straight with a Crooked Gun [27]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers Generation One, Transformers Generation Two, Transformers: Beast Machines, Transformers: Beast Wars
Genre: Gen, Hijacking, Infiltration, On the Run, Other, Trapped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-15
Updated: 2015-03-15
Packaged: 2018-03-17 21:34:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3544586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CavalierConvoy/pseuds/CavalierConvoy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As Artemis and Skyfire infiltrate the Warworld, they meet no resistance from Jhiaxus's troops...but that's because they've already been slaughtered.</p><p>Three hundred stels later, Optimus Primal, Cheetor, Black Arachnia, and Botanica enter Iacon Proper, once a dead zone for historians, but now showing signs of life...could this be the work of the metrotitan?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chapter Twenty-Six: Destroy Everything You Touch

You only have to look behind you  
At who's undermined you  
Destroy everything you touch today  
Destroy me this way

Everything you touch you don't feel  
Do not know what you steal  
Shakes your hand  
Takes your gun  
Walks you out of the sun  
\--["Destroy Everything You Touch"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTTwlAT_AwU) by Ladytron, from _Witching Hour_  
  


Thunderwing's Warworld  
Sixty-Two AUs from Cybertron  
Three Stels Ago

Skyfire was a pacifist, but by no means defenceless. Entering the bay in gerwalk mode with all external guns online and primed, Skyfire dropped the bomb bay doors, maintaining sentinel. Artemis exited the ramp, shotgun at the ready with the torch illuminating the crevices where she aimed.

"Clear," she reported, and Skyfire transformed fully into bipedal mode, weapons ready. She gestured for him to hug the walls as she swept the next room.

"Artemis," he hissed, studying the state of the two rooms. "The ship's running on auxiliary power."

"Hail the gashole," she growled, pressing forward with a side-step and a sweeping scan.

"I'm picking up no life signals," Skyfire whispered. "Nothing."

"Life support?"

"Operational, local gravity and atmosphere engaged."

"All it needs is a pretty bow," Artemis grumbled, hitching the shotgun to her shoulder. "Advice?"

"Securing the bridge should be precedent," Skyfire replied. "From there I can access the systems and find out what happened."

"Then let's roll," she agreed, taking point, continuing her room sweeps. As they ventured deeper into the ship, the corridors grew twisted, almost organic in nature, the walls folding in on one another with doorways leading nowhere. 

"Where are the crew?" Skyfire muttered. "We should have found some evidence of their existence by now."

"This is screaming 'trap'," Artemis countered, approaching an archway of contorted wires and pipes. Rolling her shoulder against the jamb, she entered the room, the beam of her torch illuminating a pile of teal and silver metal against the far wall, floor to ceiling. "I think we found the crew, Sky. Stay at the door."

Acknowledging with a nod, Skyfire stood sentry, just inside the room. Lowering her shotgun to hip level, Artemis approached the wreckage of the Legion crew, the torch's beam falling on faces frozen in horror and fear as they died. They had been torn apart; there were no visible gunshot wounds. A glint of gold and blue caught her optic mid-way up the pile. Focusing in on the glint, she laughed, a short, bright noise. It was the hilt of a melee weapon, decorated in Old High Cybertronian glyphs. "Sky, I think we found the Forge!"

"Careful, Artemis!" Skyfire warned, sliding his foot to widen his field of vision to include her and the wreckage of the crew.

"No need to tell me twice." She switched on the safety of her shotgun and rested it on her hip, testing the footing as she climbed. Reaching the hilt, she examined the surrounding bodies of how it had been lodged into the mass. The hammer had been thrust in head-first; that was discouraging. She took hold of the hilt and gave it a wiggle. A groan of metal responded, and the mass shifted underneath. Reclaiming her balance, she glanced back to her companion. "Yep, trap. Sky, I may need a — "

Skyfire jumped back with a surprised shout as the doorway collapsed onto itself, the wires binding tight, leaving no indication there had ever been an opening. "We have a situation!" he exclaimed, examining the wall with a probing hand. "This is impossible!"

"Could it be Pretender tech?" Artemis suggested.

"It only affects the outer shell; this...this is behaving in more of an organic manner, almost like a wound closing...."

"Check the room for another exit; I'm going to see what — FRAG!" Her curse echoed in the chamber; something had pulled the Forge from within the pile, yanking her hand. Losing her footing, Artemis slammed into the mass of dead, her only hold the hilt. Wires and cables lashed from the hole, wrapping around her wrist. The pile was shifting, throwing off her balance. 

With her free hand, she unsheathed one of her machine guns, looping her hand through the wrist thong, and regained her footing, just long enough to fight the next jerk from whatever was pulled the Forge from within the wreckage.

"Artemis! It's going to collapse!" Skyfire warned, rounding the base and climbing as far as he could, pulling away loose bodies.

"Something's got me!"

"Let go of the Forge!"

"I can't -- something's got my arm! What are you doing?"

"Easing the pressure! If I can get it to collapse on this side — "

"We're beyond that event horizon!" She countered, using a foot to kick away at the hole. A glint of red; she brought the gun to bear and fired a burst into the crevice, the retort echoing inside the cavern. "C'mon, gashole! Afraid to fight me face to face?" She kicked again, making the hole wider. 

_All that bravado. The truth is, you're still a scared little Autobot._

"Starscream?!" she snarled, just as more cables shot out from the hole, lashing around her legs and waist. She fought to keep her gun hand free as the cables hauled her forward, Forge and all, through the growing pocket. 

"Artemis!" Skyfire scampered across the mound, fighting to maintain his footing. He dove, thrusting his arm into the gap, fingers brushing her helm. "Artemis! I'll find you!"

"Take him down, Sky!" She shouted amidst her gunshots. 

This was more than the mound of dead Legion; she was being dragged through the ship; through service tunnels; through ventilation shafts and between walls. Her hand grasping the Forge's hilt was too far from the energy release, and the shotgun was pressed and locked on her opposite hip; she was unable to cross-draw.

_You're wasting ammo. How unlike you. The Wreckers have been a bad influence, it seems._

He was baiting her. She held her tongue, firing at the cable dragging her through the passages. It took damage —  
— no, it was wounded. That was energon seepage — 

— and the wound closed, bound and knit.

She filed the observation under "things to ponder after escaping certain death" and resumed her struggle against the binds. 

So, a change in plans are in order, Starscream continued. Where was his voice coming from? I'm glad you and Skyfire came — it would have been a shame to destroy the entire planet just to talk.

The gat beeped a warning — only quarter of the magazine remaining. Pressing the muzzle to the cable binding her other hand to the Forge, she fired a burst, the ricochet shrapnel scorching her arm. The cable recoiled, and she freed her hand, allowing the machine gun to dangle from its thong as she exchanged the hold. Drawing the second gat, she thumbed off the safety and aimed at the main cable once more.

 _And as always you prefer to speak with your fists._

Bringing the gat to bear, she loosed a burst on the main cable.

_So be it._

The cables pulled her upward, hanging her upside down, at a speed that left her dizzy, her equilibrium unable to recalibrate. 

_All I asked was for you and Skyfire to join me here, in negotiations. That's all. A chat with three old friends._

She gritted back countless retorts, struggled against the binds one last futile time, before cursing in frustration.

"Fine, flyboy," Artemis relented. "Let's talk."

*

Cybertropolis  
Iacon Harbour District, Underground  
Three Hundred Stels from Now

"This isn't one of those vision quests, is it?" Black Arachnia grumbled close to Cheetor's audio receptor. "Metrotitans were worshipped under certain religious cults, the Circle of Light being the most prominent."

"I don't think so this time," the Maximal second-in-command shook his head. "Maybe if 'Tera hadn't given the order, I'd think the same thing."

Iacon was huge in the days of Autobots and Decepticons. It sprawled under the surface of the new city, forgotten by all but the most dedicated of historians prior to Beast Wars. Optimus named his team: Black Arachnia, Botanica, and Cheetor; the others stayed at base. This was a science mission. Optimus had brought Nightscream down here once before, and the city had been dead as Cybertropolis above. Now, signs and lights were lit, as though in a brown-out; some flickered out as others stayed on. 

"Black Arachnia!" Optimus beckoned, pointing to an information kiosk. "Can you access a map?"

"I can try," she shrugged, skittering to the kiosk and climbing to its surface. "It's a good thing we've got some power here. I'm surprised it's not crawling with Vehicons."

"If the metrotitan awoke recently, it may have yet to cross Megatron's radar," Botanica mused, cupping her chin. 

"I just had a thought," Black Arachnia typed at the console. "Optimus, where is the ship in relation to us right now? Also, I need to know its position; which was is it facing, what's the flight dynamic positioning? Gross estimate; we can fine-tune on the fly."

From the Harbour overlooking the Sea of Light, the sky was visible, as was the rock cliff where Pantera, Skyfire, and Rattrap had found the Lost Light. Optimus's rolling gait covered the ground between the street corner and the docks, to the end of a pier. He gazed to the north, the dawn glinting on the micron-thin film covering the sea.  
"Two klicks north, five-hundred metres up. Ten, minus five, minus ten." Returning to the others, he kept a cursory scan of the surroundings. "Gross estimate."

"It's enough. So here's what I'm thinking," the spider studied the console before resuming her typing. "The metrotitan's probably working on basic functions. Not going to be doing any massive calculations. He's grasping blindly, in other words, trying to catch the first thing he can. So, pop quiz: what's the second-quickest way to point A to point B on a globe?"

"Straight line — wait, you said second-quickest." Cheetor retracted his guess.

"Actually, you nailed it, Spots," Black Arachnia chuckled. "First is how space bridges work: bringing Point A and Point B together for an instant; folding space, in other words. Second is a straight line: Point A to Point B, disregarding any obstacles. Think a space bridge, only without folding. The third is our conventional mode: travelling along the surface, in an arc. But I'm thinking the second: not enough power to fold space, just enough to pull something closer. The observation was that the ship's at least three-hundred stels dead supports this."

"If it had been moved using minute jumps — after all, the ship is a hop-ship, correct? — it would explain the merging into the cliff," Botanica suggested.

"Which also supports the straight line theory. The big guy probably doesn't realise it, he just wants to bring the generator to him. Ah!" Black Arachnia swiped at the console, summoning a map of the city onto the large screen. "We're here — " she indicated a red dot blinking on the flickering screen " — and the ship is here — " another, this one blue " — which means, if we were to map a straight course, would place a possible location anywhere along this path — " she brought up a line bisecting the map " — granting that the ship was nose-first when grabbed. Gross estimate."

"Margin of error?"

Black Arachnia shrugged. "Fifty-fifty? We're reaching as it is. Metrotitans were great at hiding."

"That's what Pantera said," Optimus sighed. "Can we trace the energy readings to its source?"

"That's doable. Let me try something." The spider returned to the console, clacking at the controls with three of her legs.

"Cheetor, five-hundred metre perimeter," Optimus ordered.

"On it, Big Bot," the cheetah Maximal agreed, bolting to the west. As Optimus and Botanica stood guard over Black

Arachnia, the plant-based Maximal furrowed her brow, lowering her head.

"What is it?" Optimus questioned.

"I hear singing," she reported, just as the ground rumbled.

"I don't think he liked that," Black Arachnia grumbled.

"Report!" Optimus ordered.

"Can't tell you — all I did was look for energy patterns — " 

A boom — one more felt than heard — radiated out from above. Cheetor sped towards his teammates, braking hard on approach.

"Something happened to the ship!" he reported. "I saw it! A — burst of sorts!"

"Is it still there?" Optimus demanded, already in stride to the docks. 

"Yeah, but — " Cheetor followed Optimus, turning back to Botanica and ordered, "Stay with Black Arachnia!"

"Like I need babysitting, kid," Black Arachnia snarked. 

Optimus stopped midway to the pier, grabbed Cheetor on the roundabout, and headed back to the others. "Finish up! We have incoming!"

"Level Upsilon, grids Sigma through Psi, sections Three through Twelve!" Black Arachnia announced, swiping away the data. "Can't pinpoint any closer than that!"

Botanica took the lead, towards a storefront with a blown out sign. "We can reach a sub-level from in here!" 

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Black Arachnia slipped through a crack in the facade; a few clicks passed before the front door slid open, wide enough for Optimus to enter. Once everyone was inside, he eased the door shut, backing away from the frosted glass.

"Black Arachnia, scout the basement," Optimus whispered. "Cheetor, Botanica, secure the floor." Hackles rising, he stood sentry in front of the door. "Maintain silence until we're clear."

The three agreed with nods before splitting off to their assignments as the drone of helicopters reached their audio receptors.

And, through the white noise, the Maximal leader heard something else.

Chanting — no, singing. 

Search beams crossed the windows, illuminating the storefront — a public house, judging by the chairs, tables, and bar surrounding him. Ghosts of the past?

The lights slowed as the chopper blades whirred, concentrating on the buildings.

Upon "Maximal signature detected," Optimus bared teeth. _Who transformed — ?_

He did not finish the thought as gunfire rained outside, the helicopters leaving the front of the pub. Who disobeyed orders?

Three crashes and an explosion, machine guns slowing....

Optimus shielded his face as a copter-drone flew through an already cracked window, landing in a haphazard heap against the bar. Someone else brushed past him, onto the drone before it could recover. Three impacts, and silence.

"Litre of stout with a shot of Nightmare Fuel, Blurr!" Pantera announced, face to the bar, resting the large sledge hammer on her shoulder. "And put it on Whirl's tab!"

Optimus regarded the elder, standing on the drone with one foot on its ruined head, before uttering her name.

She turned, regarding him at first with confusion, then recognition. "Primal," she greeted with a nod, "I see you've found one of my old haunts."

 

NEXT CHAPTER: Hand on Heart


End file.
